he grave or sepulchre. Now, can you tell me why it is that on Easter we
have these Easter eggs, such as I hold in my hand? I will tell you why
it is. It is because while the outside of this egg is like the outside
of a vault or grave, yet inside there is a germ of life. If you take a
dozen perfect eggs and place them under a mother hen, and have her set
on them for three weeks, at the end of that time out of these eggs which
seem to have nothing of life in them, there will come forth little
chickens, just such as I hold in my hand, only this one is not alive.
But it is a very accurate representation of a little chicken a day or
two old.

Now, just in this same way if you were to drive through a cemetery and
look at a vault, which is the nearest that we have in this country in
likeness to the sepulchre in which the body of Christ was laid, you
would not suppose for a moment that there would be living people in that
vault. While the bodies that are in the vault are dead bodies, yet they
have the promise of life, God will some day raise them up, unite again
the soul and the body and give them that everlasting life and
resurrection glory which Jesus has promised. And as Jesus rose from the
dead on Easter Sunday morning, so we have the promise that in the final
resurrection the bodies of all who have ever lived upon the earth shall
hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth; those who have
lived Christian lives to the resurrection of life, and those who have
done evil to the resurrection of death and eternal punishment.

[Illustration: Little Chickens Just Out of the Shells.]

The egg then is the symbol of life, for out of this seemingly lifeless
object there comes forth the living chick; so out of the graves and
sepulchres there will eventually come forth the bodies of all who have
ever died, and these bodies shall become resurrection bodies. These
mortals shall put on immortality, and these corruptible bodies shall put
on incorruption; and then the souls and the bodies of all shall be
reunited, never again to be separated throughout all eternity.

Perhaps during the past few months or years you may have laid away in
the grave the body of some dear little brother or sister, or perhaps of
a kind father or mother, or some other friend; if so, the spring season
of the year will suggest to you the resurrection. The grass and the
flowers which appeared to be dead last fall, and which during the winter
have been wra